Photo Credit: Christine Kornely
A special tribute song to a late Manitowoc musician was performed Saturday during Metro Jam in Washington Park.
Tom Chermak served as lead singer with backup singers, including current Mayor Justin Nickels and former mayor Kevin Crawford as they sang “Spiders In My Pocket”.
In talking with Seehafer News after the performance, Chermak said the tune was written by Steve Heise, who died unexpectedly in April.
“Steve brought the words to practice saying I wrote this song. And, he had it typed out. In those days it was a manual typewriter,” Chermak explained. “So, he took it out of his pocket and it’s a song kind of like Louie, Louie that you probably think it was from a toga party or beer party or something.”
Drummer Bob Peronto and Chermak, performing as part of the Fryin’ Kielbasa Band, said the origin of the song was actually based on a true life experience.
“We had a job coming from Oshkosh one year and our car broke down,” he recalled. “We had to stay somewhere and a nice couple at a farmhouse took us in for the night and we just kind of slept wherever. We got up and they had no idea where we were in this house. Steve picked up a pillow when he got up in the morning and all these spiders scattered everywhere and that was it. Inspiration comes from odd places.”
Steve’s brother, Dave Heise, was also part of the Metro stage tribute, and he said, “Steve would’ve enjoyed it a lot and he had a lot of people around him who enjoyed him and it was a good thing.”
Chermak and Peronto explained that besides being in a number of bands over the years, including the SPARKPLUGZ, Steve Heise was a co-founder of Metro Jam nearly 45 years ago and “was just a great guy.”
